"Don't get your dress dirty, Faith," her mother yelled to her.
"Of course not mother." She rolled her eyes. Her mother was always worried about one thing or another. 'Don't get your dress dirty' or 'don't look over the fence, those are the Blacks over there. They are purebloods and don't want to have anything to do with us.' She didn't really understand why the Blacks were so bad.
In that household there were two boys. One was smaller than the other so there was clearly an age difference but they looked so much alike that Faith could never tell which one was which. Sometimes however there were also two girls that came over. They must have been cousins of some sort. Faith didn't like either of them. They gave her snooty looks from the high windows of the estate whenever Faith walked by. The boys were okay though, when they didn't bother her.
She went out into the backyard and sat on the little swing that her father had bought her for her seventh birthday. It was a jungle gym according to him. Her mother couldn't comprehend the contraption, but it brought a smile to the little girl's face, and that was all that really mattered. Her mother's only concern was that didn't fall off the swing. This was tricky for Faith because she loved to soar high and was prone to falling down. She would pump her tiny legs and pick up speed, sending her back and forth, back and forth. Higher and higher she would go. Some of the most exhilarating moments of her childhood were the times when she would leap off the swing and fly through the air, landing firmly on the ground with a thud.
Today Faith knew she couldn't jump though. Her mother was having company and her father was out at work until six o'clock. Her mother had a lot to do before the guests arrived so she had dressed Faith up in her pretty yellow dress with a white ribbon tied in her curled copper-brown hair. Then to get Faith out of her own hair for a while, she sent her out into the backyard to amuse herself. Sitting on the swing however wasn't very amusing to Faith.
She clicked her black-strapped shoes together, sending sand everywhere. She heard a noise then and looked up in the direction of the fence. It was a high wooden fence that separated the acre of land, which the Blacks owned from her own property. At the top of the fence however was a little boy with dark brown hair and blue-grey eyes. Faith was startled for a few moments before realizing who he was. It was clearly one of the Black children, though she couldn't make up her mind whether it was Regulus or Sirius. Just then another pair of eyes popped up beside the first two. They looked almost identical, except where one pair was more grey the other pair was bluer.
Faith raised her chin. "What do you want?" she yelled at the boys. One of them raised their own chin higher to mock Faith and she huffed. "Boys."
One of the heads disappeared and from her perch Faith could see the boy run up to the great mansion at the top of the incline. She heard him yell, "Come on Sirius, father wants us to wash before supper."
The boy who was still starring at Faith waved off his brother's calls and continued to stare.
"What are you staring at?" Faith called to the boy, irritated by his persistent manner.
"Nothing," he replied. "Just an ugly girl."
"Ugly! Why on earth would you call me that? That's not very nice."
He shrugged his shoulders. "You look like an ugly duck. How old are you?"
"Why should I tell you?"
"I'm nine and a half."
"That's nice."
"Aren't you going to tell me your age?" he prodded.
"No I'm not. Now go away."
"Will you tell me your name?"
"Not in your life."
Faith turned her head away from the fence, imagining that when she looked back his head would no longer be there. She couldn't begin to guess what he was doing asking her all these questions. She also refused to answer any of them because it was just rude. He began the conversation saying she was ugly and then expected her to fall in love with him, how typical of a pureblood.
Her mother opened the door and called her name, "Faith. Come inside dear, your father is home."
"Okay Mum." She turned back to look at the fence and noticed that the eyes were not there. Thank goodness, she thought. He didn't hear my name.
She hopped off the swing and went towards the backdoor. As she took the first step up the stairs she heard, "See ya around Faith." She whipped her head around and saw the boy, Sirius, grinning widely. She scowled and continued inside.
~*~*~*~
He scampered down from the tree stump he'd been standing on. The fence was much too high for him to see all on his own. Luckily there was the stump that stuck out of the ground at least two feet for him to hop up onto and peer over the white fence into his neighbours' backyard. He'd often looked out his bedroom window at the back of the mansion and seen the little girl next door. She looked really weird to him. He wasn't quite sure whether to categorize her as pretty or ugly. Today he'd chosen ugly. The dress she was wearing made her look super weird.
He skipped gleefully up the back lawn towards the mansion. He really did like it here. The winter home in London was far too stuffy. He was the only person in his family that found it so. The summer mansion however, it gave him the chance to run free. His brother always tottered along with him, but that didn't really matter. It still meant that Sirius was free to wander.
He went in the back door of the house and trekked his way towards the kitchens. He thought he had better wash before his mother yelled at him to wash. She was a bloody wailer and whenever he displeased her in one manner or another, she would wail and wail about his wrongdoings. He really couldn't care less though.
After he'd washed his hands, Sirius went into the den where his mother and father and brother were all waiting for him.
"Sirius," his mother said sternly, "where have you been? I believe you were told fifteen minutes ago to come inside and wash for dinner."
Regulus stood beside his mother looking very proud. Even though he was younger, Sirius thought that Regulus always seemed more grown up than he should be. It must have been all the long nights he spent with their father in the study, pruning him to go down in history as another famous Black.
"Yes mother," Sirius replied duly, "I got distracted."
"Regulus tells me you were looking over the fence again." His father looked at him with hard eyes, daring him to lie.
"Yes father, I was looking over the fence."
"Find anything interesting to look at?" his mother asked sweetly. Sirius was about to reply when she snapped, "That was a rhetorical question! How many times do we have to tell you not to look over the fence? Those are not purebloods! You are forbidden to even talk to them! Did you talk to anyone? Hmm?"
"Yes, I did." He didn't say any more. He knew he was in trouble but he liked getting his mother upset. It was an excuse to be sent to his room for the rest of the night and not have to deal with their company anymore. Which is exactly what happened. No sooner had he uttered those words he was being ushered upstairs by his father, a vice grip on his upper arm.
"Son you disappoint me. When you go off to Hogwarts perhaps the Slytherin house will tame you down from you muggle-loving ways. And if you are not chosen for Slytherin than you are a disgrace to the House of Black." He threw Sirius into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. Sirius heard the lock turn. He was always locked in his room. His father thought it prevented him from eating and then behaving the next time in order to be fed. But Sirius knew better.
"Kreacher."
POP!
"Yes Master Sirius," Kreacher muttered, bowing low.
"Kreacher, I've been locked in. Will you bring me up some food after everyone's gone to bed?"
"Of course Master Sirius."
POP!
Sirius went over to the wide window he had that looked out over the whole backyard. In the neighboring house he could see the lights on and could hear the music playing. They must have been entertaining. In one of the windows he could see the little girl, Faith, sitting on a piano stool beside her father. She sang along to the melody. He didn't like Faith, he decided, but she was certainly a fun person to torment.
He smiled at himself before flopped down on his bed, waiting the long night ahead of him. Lonely night. Peaceful night.
~*~*~*~